Let's Try Something Else
by Kanthia
Summary: A series of TWEWY drabbles written in part for the 365 Drabble Challenge. Contains spoilers. 19: Mr. H is forced to contemplate what it means to be in desperate times, and what constitutes a desperate measure.
1. Let's Try Something Else

**Title**: Let's Try Something Else  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Shiki, Beat  
Warning(s): Spoilers for W3D7.  
Genre: Gen

The last thing Shiki remembered was the man with the dark glasses telling her that she had been given another chance. Then there was a flash of light, the scent of charred feathers, the feeling of the space between her hand and Neku's- and then she woke up in some sort of weird underground tunnel, still in Eri's body.

She pinched the skin on the inside of her elbow gently, then harder; convinced she was at the very least not dreaming, she pushed herself onto two feet. The sudden rush of blood downward almost caused her to fall over. Once she had reclaimed her bearings, she allowed herself a look around and startled herself when she heard the voices.

_I must be dead again. I'm hearing Neku and Beat and I'm dead again._

There was a red skull pin heavy over her heart. _Oh, God,_ she thought, and she wasn't even religious.

Nobody is, after dying.


	2. Shibuya's Next Top Model

**Title:** Shibuya's Next Top Model**  
Fandom:** The World Ends With You_  
Pairing/Characters:_ Mr. H, Neku  
Warning(s): Subtle spoilers for the secret reports.  
Genre: Gen

Backstage, there is complete chaos. Neku isn't sure if there's a word for what is going on- the running and yelling, the hairspray filling the air, the seemingly hundreds of hands on him at once, straightening, pinning, fixing.

Amidst all of the chaos, Mr. H saunters over and gives him a once-over, then leans down and straightens the jacket. It's a blend of red leather and black cotton that he's never seen before. "How does it feel?"

"Weird as hell."

Mr. H laughs. "Well, thanks for filling in. It means a lot."

Shiki, who was doing a summer internship with Gatito, had called him that morning and frantically explained that one of their models had fallen and twisted his ankle. They had a runway show in three hours with an empty spot. Neku wasn't exactly into fashion, but he wasn't about to back out of helping a friend- two of them, actually.

"I…still don't really get what to do."

That elicits a frown from Mr. H, and Neku almost panics. "Yeah, I know, Phones. I don't like sending you down without any coaching, but we have no choice…and you, of all kids, should know about playing it close when the chips are down, eh?" He tugs the jacket again, gives a knowing smile, and suddenly straightens up. "Which reminds me. C'mover here, I forgot something."

Neku follows him over to a dressing table, a makeup artist and a hair stylist following in his wake. Mr. H reaches into a nearby bag, pulls out a red and black pair of headphones (sans wires) and places them first around Neku's neck, then considers the image before moving them on top of the boy's ears.

Neku places his hands, almost by instinct, over the headphones. "These…"

"Graffiti's not the only way I do it," he says, and gives Neku a wink. "It's a way to get a message out. You should know that better than anyone." He pauses. "Listen. You don't have coaching, but your walk is really natural. Just walk down to the end of the runway, give the photographers a pose to shoot, and then come back. Not too fast, but not too slow. Nothing to it."

"Nothing to it."

"Pretend Josh is on the end of the runway, okay? You'll do great, Phones."

Suddenly, music begins pounding from the catwalk and the creative director is yelling something about getting in order. Neku doesn't have time to think before he's pushed out, the lights blaring and the crowd screaming. And he doesn't even need to pretend- because there's Josh, sitting in the front row at the end of the runway, a grin on his face that tells Neku that he's probably orchestrated this whole thing.


	3. The Boy Who Considers It

**Title**: The Boy Who Considers It  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Joshua, Hanekoma  
Warning(s): Spoilers for the secret reports.  
Genre: Gen  
Another fragment of Shibuya's Next Top Model.

"You," Neku sputtered. "You. You're the one who got me into this."

"Isn't it nice, though? You're famous, and you have me to thank! Really, you should be applauding my giving nature right now. Besides, Sanae was in on it too."

Joshua was lounging on one of the few couches in the Dead God's Pad; Neku had just returned from being signed with Elite Model Management, the most prestigious model management in the world. He hadn't even known about said appointment until Joshua sent him a text that morning.

"You Imprinted them."

"Surprisingly, no. Sanae and his little line of clothing has worldwide notoriety- the president of Elite was sitting in the front row when you walked down the runway." He shrugged his shoulders and leaned back farther. "Maybe it was me who got you there, but it was you who impressed them."

"But- I don't know the first thing about modelling!"

Joshua yawned and picked up a black portfolio on the coffee table in front of him, leafing through it. "Really, Neku, you're making such a big deal out of this. Just do what your manager tells you to do and you'll be fine. And speaking of your manager, they assigned me to be yours."

Neku went red.

x x x

His first cover and feature spread was in Shibuya Style, a mainstream magazine for people who didn't understand that Shibuya style was doing your own thing. His first billboard came a month later, for Asuka Tendo's fragrance Neon, right in the middle of the Scramble. The fangirls had been around even before that- but after, it was getting ridiculous.

"Sakuraba Neku," Hanekoma said, reading one of them, "Every time I see your face my heart skips a beat. The thought of you and I together makes my insides weep with joy. Enclosed is a lock of my hair so that you can use my DNA to clone our child." He laughed, the sound filling the empty café. "What do you think, Neku? Prospective marriage material?"

"…I don't think so."

Hanekoma put the letter down and leaned over. "You okay, Phones? You're not overworked, are you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine- I mean, it's a really great industry. And when I'm too old for it, at least I'll be able to find a job doing something else I love…painting, or something."

"Well. I'm not going to be around forever. Someone's going to have to take over for me when I'm done. Whaddaya think?" He gave Neku a wink.

"Me? Be CAT?"

"Sure! After all, I was Sanae the fashion designer before I received my Angelhood. If you're not ready to think about the UG again, at least give it some thought, huh?"

"…Yeah. I'll think about it."


	4. Reconfigure

**Title**: Reconfigure  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Joshua  
Warning(s): Spoilers spoilers spoilers and some more spoilers.  
Genre: Gen

When Neku woke from his second death, he immediately thought he was in heaven- he was lying down in the softest bed he had ever been in, his head in someone's lap, a hand gently running through his hair. When he looked up and saw Joshua's face he realized he must have been in hell.

Joshua shushed him as soon as he began to struggle, and Neku felt oddly unable to resist, as though there was a hand pressing down on his chest.

"…What," was the only thing he could manage.

"Hush," Joshua said. "I shot the ground beside you, and you collapsed."

"Shi-" Neku groaned, a sudden pain seizing him.

"Yes, I know you're upset, but-"

"_Shibuya_," Neku finished.

"Oh?" Joshua grinned, and let Neku's head down from his lap onto a pillow. Neku's breathing slowed, his chest rising and falling evenly. "Shibuya's fine- just going through some growing pains."

"Good," Neku breathed.

Joshua watched him for a while, slipping from his human form back to his Angelic form- maybe when Neku was fully aware he'd tell him the whole story, and maybe not. But the boy deserved to know that he had saved the city he loved.

In those last few moments, gun pointed at gun, he had panicked- Joshua, that is, as well as Neku- because Megumi's sacrifice had opened a little part of him that was willing to accept change. But if Neku wouldn't change than neither would Shibuya, so one final test was in order.

Twenty-one days had changed Neku and Shibuya equally. A new city was rising from the ashes just as his beloved proxy was reconfiguring himself.

"How…" Neku wasn't asleep yet. He slowly moved until he was sitting up against the headboard, blue eyes grey with exhaustion. "How're…you?"

"Fine," Joshua said. _Getting better, just as you are._


	5. Power Series

**Title**: Power Series  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Konishi, Kitaniji, Minamimoto  
Warning(s): Sexual references  
Genre: Gen

Konishi had worked for the better part of five years to get Kitaniji. It wasn't that he was particularly good looking- well, he _was_, but that wasn't the point- but having him in her power would certainly do wonders for her career. And if she had to use her body as a means to achieve these ends, there were certainly worse ways to go about it.

And, of course, somebody had to throw a wrench in her plans right at the last minute.

"So zetta _bored_," said monkey wrench whined, moping around her apartment.

"Go Erase some Players," she growled, trying to set up candles and flowers without being too obvious. The last thing she needed right now was him hanging around, with Kitaniji showing up in half an hour.

"Negative. Game's over…hey, what're you factoring?"

"Sprucing up my apartment, nothing more. Now would you please-" She yelped when he suddenly wrapped his hand around her waist and brought his head way too close to hers.

"We must be isomorphic, 'cause I'm totally _onto_ you." She could smell the alcohol on his breath. "Wanna form a linear transformation between my vector space and yours?"

_Oh, for God's sake…_ "I- need you to find me the antiderivative of sin x over x. Don't come back until you figure it out."

"Will do, integrand," he said, and scurried out the door.

x x x

Kitaniji came exactly a minute and a half late, and she wasted no time in setting up her trap. Within five minutes his shirt was off, and in seven they were both on her (carefully arranged to look messy-but-not-too-messy) bed, ready for some career planning…

…When Minamimoto barrelled through the (locked, now broken off its hinges) door. "Sin x over x doesn't have a definite integral, so I integrated through power seri- what do we have _here_?"

Konishi got her promotion because Kitaniji found the whole situation hilarious, and everything turned out for the best in the end- except that Minamimoto took to sneaking into her room at night, asking if it was time to do some power series.


	6. Design

**Title**: Design  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Shiki  
Warning(s): Spoilers.  
Genre: Gen

Shiki doesn't pick up a needle for a week after the Game ends.

She doesn't touch a sewing machine for a month.

It takes four weeks until she's ready, ready to make up with Eri, ready to make something again. Her creative energy was exhausted trying to stay alive, but she knows that if one thing saved her it was her desire to make something beautiful with her life.

She sits down with a pencil and sheet of paper, and stares at the blank white for the better part of an hour- and then has to throw it out and get a new one, because the dried tear-stains are compromising the creamy colour and texture of it. The second piece fares no better. Before she gets a third sheet out she stands up, wipes her eyes, and washes her face. She manages to draw the faint outline of a woman's form before she has to throw that one out, too.

On the fourth sheet she draws a man's form. She has never made menswear and never thought she would, but before she knows it she's drawn Neku in a button-down vest and loose jeans, his mouth saying _right behind you_ and his heart saying _we're going to be okay_. She moves to crumple it up but (almost by instinct) slips it into the back of her sketchbook instead.

On the fifth sheet she draws Eri's body, which she's grown so used to, and sits back, wondering what to design. Then she leans forward and writes _what if Gatito put out a line of dresses_? along the bottom.

Satisfied with her inspiration, she puts pencil to paper and starts to draw.

Two hours later, she's finished- and yeah, it's not the prettiest drawing she's ever made. But maybe if she took it to Mr. H he'd at least be amused and she could work from there.

She caps her markers, puts her pencils away, and is finally ready to move on with her life.


	7. A Small Legend

**Title**: A Small Legend  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku  
Warning(s): Spoilers  
Genre: Gen

_By itself, this pin exhibits no power. It reads: "Wind, wood, flame, and mount: so must you be if you would roam the fields of war."_

"What have you got there, Neku?" Joshua peered over Neku's shoulder to the pin he was examining. "Must be rather unimportant, if you're staring at it so intently."

"Shut up. Ram Crotch left it at the end of...that week."

"Oh~? What does it do?"

Neku turned it over again. "...Nothing."

"Just like you, right?" Joshua giggled his infuriating giggle, and Neku made a sound that was almost a growl in response.

"Nothing, but...it looks like there's three more in the set. It doesn't do anything on its own."

"Wind, wood, flame, and mount? I'll be the flame...you can be the mount."

Neku groaned.

x x x

He found them in odd places, tucked in corners, hiding in lightless crevices. By the fifth day of the third week he had three of them carefully stored in his pocket where they seemed to shift and fidget, as though they were waiting for something - or someone.

"Whatcha got there, Phones?"

"Oh - they're these weird pins. I don't know what they do."

"Wood, flame, 'n mount? Geez, you're missin' the wind one...got it right here." He fished around in his pocket and drew it out. "Wasn't sure if it was good f'r anything, so I kept it on me."

"Thanks," Neku said, and took it in the hand that held the other three. He blinked and was in the middle of a great battlefield, in the midst of someone else's dream.

x x x

Gatito is famous for that - taking stories and legends and pieces of Composers and splitting them into sets of pins where they remain unchanged by time. Gatito Manhattan, for example, makes a set they call 'Like an Angel from Heaven', which has a little bit of Shibuya in it...Angel's wings, Angel's smile, Angel's flame. Well, I suppose that Gatito of all companies is allowed to do that, eh?

Wind, wood, flame and mount - made that set out of my own two hands. Sakuraba's in for a bit of a trip.


	8. Pink

**Title**: Pink  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Uzuki, light Uzuki/Kariya  
Warning(s): Spoilers.  
Genre: Gen

And so Uzuki opened her eyes and found herself in the middle of the Scramble, Player Pin clutched desperately in her left hand, a gun in her right. The orders given to them by the guy with the glasses ran through her mind - _find a Partner_ echoed at the end, and she knew she was going to have to act fast if she wanted her old life back. She found Izumi, the quiet grey-haired girl, sitting dazed next to Hachiko -- yeah, she wasn't a first choice, but there were plenty of worse people to suffer through seven days with (at least, that's what Uzuki had thought at the time).

"Izzy? Hey! Izzy!" She started to run over when a group of Frog Noise appeared behind her - whether or not she wanted to spend her week with Izumi, it was too late. "Izzy! Make a Pact with me, yeah?"

Izzy looked up, saw her, did a double take, then nodded. They touched hands and surrendered for a moment to the blue light.

In that moment Uzuki saw many things - herself, for instance. Her long black hair that she spent hours tending to every day had apparently been her precious thing; it was short now, and a hideous shade of pink. She saw all around them, to the rooftops of buildings where Harrier Reapers watched them with little interest. An orange-haired one was almost giving her…some kind of look, but she wasn't sure. He was probably some sort of creep checking her out.

After a split-second the formation of the Pact was finished and they were dropped on the ground into their very first fight. Of the two of them Izzy was better at using those weird Pins the dark-eyed man had given them, but Uzuki could focus herself into that gun she had woken up with. They high-fived and hugged at the end, ready to take on whatever the hell else the Game was going to throw at them.

Izumi was dead two days later, bawling for God or Jesus or whoever the hell else wasn't there to save her from the Harrier's icy wrath. Uzuki never finished her Game so she never got her hair back - but that orange-haired Harrier needed some pink to balance him out, and maybe she didn't want her old life back.


	9. Traitor

**Title**: Traitor  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Hanekoma  
Warning(s): Spoilers for W3D7.  
Genre: Gen

Neku started to duck over to Cat Street after school as a little tradition - he'd poke his head into the window to check that Mr. H was in there, then slip in for some coffee and conversation. It was a little odd that the enigmatic designer-Producer-barista-Angel was always in (didn't he have other things to do?) but Neku supposed that some people were just good at being in two places at once.

"So, what're ya having today, Phones?"

There was no menu, of course; Mr. H didn't believe in them. "What's new today?"

"Mmm…we got some chocolate in yesterday - I could make you a mocha. How's that sound?"

"Sounds great." Mr. H turned around and started rummaging around for a cup and a spoon in the organized chaos, leaving Neku to pull out his algebra notes and get started on his homework. There was something in the air; they were both distracted. "So…Mr. H."

He turned around. "What's up?"

"How many...Players have you seen around?"

Suddenly serious, Mr. H rubbed his chin. "Josh hasn't run a Game since then. Players 're passing straight through. Why d'you ask?"

"Uh…why are there no Games?"

"No Conductor."

They shared a moment of silence for Shades - poor Shades, who had tried so hard and failed in the end. "Why doesn't Jo - why doesn't _he_ promote someone?"

"Yodai isn't strong enough." Hanekoma counted on his fingers. "Koki - that's Lollipop to you - doesn't want to, and Uzuki won't do anything without him, and the rest…you never ran into them for a reason. Megumi wasn't interested in them, and neither are we. Mitsuki was - well, we did to her what we do to traitors."

Neku sighed darkly but took the coffee when it was ready, and savoured the bitter-sweet flavour as they chatted about nothing in particular. He paid for his drink, thanked Hanekoma for the conversation, and was halfway home when he suddenly froze.

_We did to her what we do to traitors._

Wasn't Mr. H a traitor, too?


	10. Existence

**Title**: Existence  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Joshua, Hanekoma, implied Neku/Shiki  
Warning(s): Spoilers.  
Genre: Gen

"You look glum, boss," Hanekoma says, joining Shibuya's Composer on the rooftop of Pork City, cup of coffee in hand. "Something you wanna talk about?"

The mass of silver light that makes up Joshua darkens just a bit. "I am _not_ glum," he mumbles, which makes it all the more obvious that he is.

"Oh? Just down a bit, Josh?" Hanekoma peeks over the side of the rooftop and notices exactly what has his Composer so moody -- Sakuraba Neku, his little proxy, is walking arm-in-arm with an anonymous girl.

Joshua knows that he knows, since they've been around one another for too many years to need Player Pins to read the other's mind. "He shouldn't be with her."

"Possessive much?"

"She's not right for him." He huffs dramatically. "She's not even pretty."

Hanekoma takes another peek at her, narrowing his eyes. The strong chin and dark hair seem oddly familiar; it takes about ten seconds for it to dawn on him. "That's Misaki Shiki, boss. She looked different during the Game, but -- anyways, there's more to being right than lookin' nice, though it helps."

"I _know_ that, Sanae, and my judgment won't change. She's not right for him."

He laughs at that, because it's been years since Joshua has acted like such a child. But it's good for him to get his frustration out this way rather than bottling it up and letting it -- well, get to the point it did last time.

On the street below, almost lost in the middle of the scramble, Neku feels a slight tingle on the back of his neck as though someone is watching him. He looks up from mint-chocolate-chip ice cream; Shiki takes advantage of his distraction to steal a lick, then gives him a feisty little smile when he turns his attention back to her.

"Hear something, Neku?"

There was a spot of light almost like a halo above Pork City, but it could have been his eyes. "No, nothing. Wanna head for the movie theatre?"

If anything, just by existing Sakuraba Neku was saving Shibuya every day.


	11. Discount

**Title**: Discount  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Joshua, Neku, Masuoka  
Warning(s): Teh ghey.  
Genre: Gen

To say Masuoka was fashionable was a lie. After all, Masuoka worked behind the register at an Edoga, one of those stores sniffing around for a style, copying others. Not a very popular destination for anyone but old people and Americans who didn't get Shibuya. Nowhere near the number of good-looking guys he would have liked to see on a daily basis.

So it was a bit of a happy surprise when the kid with orange hair walked in -- Neku, was it? -- not with his usual companion (he had thought, with a heavy heart, that she was his girlfriend) but a pretty boy with white hair.

"Should get back to the mission," Neku mumbled, his hands in his pockets. "We're wasting time, Joshua."

"Hush," the second boy said. "You need some new clothes. Wasn't it you who said we needed to find something less expensive so you could afford to eat like a gourmet, hmm?"

"Shut up. I happen to like the Tatsumi, unlike Mister Puts-Salt-on-Everything."

"Can I help you?" _Good one, Masuoka. _God, his face was probably red.

"Just looking," Neku said. There was something so effortlessly sexy about the way he leaned back ever so slightly and adjusted his headphones.

Meanwhile, the other boy -- Joshua -- was poking through a pile of Sheepy Heavenly shirts. Masuoka's gaydar flashed red. Not that Joshua was anything close to his type, but if Neku hung around with him...

"What do you think, Neku?" Joshua held up a frilly pink shirt.

"Up yours," Neku said, barely looking up from examining a Hip Snake belt. "Besides, it's way out of our budget. I'm not going hungry so that you can look like a fruit."

"I thought it would look nice on _you_," Joshua said with a pout. Five thousand yen put it at one of their more expensive items; even if you ate out every day, that was still two or three day's worth of food. The silver-haired boy looked towards Masuoka. "How about a discount for your favourite customers?"

"Uh," Masuoka stammered, feeling a strange buzzing in his head as though someone was looking inside it. "S-sorry, no can do."

"Fair enough." Joshua took out his cell phone and began to fiddle with it, leaving the befuddled clerk alone.

He returned to fiddling behind the counter, trying to count change or at least do something to get his mind off the thought of Neku in Sheepy Heavenly. He had just about calmed down when Neku and Joshua reached his counter, their arms laden with sale-priced Hip Snake and Natural Puppy when the thought suddenly occurred to him:

_I really want to give a discount to Neku Sakuraba_.

"Ah- d-discount?"

_I'd really like to sleep with Neku Sakuraba._

His face turned a deep crimson. Joshua regarded him coolly, then flashed him a smile. "What was that about a discount?"

He needed to get them out of there fast, before- well, before _something_ happened. "T-twenty percent off, for my f-favourite customers."

x x x

"You know, Joshua, one of these days I'm going to kill you."

"Oh, Neku. But then how would we get such fantastic prices? Besides, that boy had the hots for you long before I Imprinted him."

Neku growled.


	12. Patternmaker

**Title**: Patternmaker  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Minamimoto  
Warning(s): None  
Genre: Gen

Mathematics, really, is just patternmaking -- so Sho and mathematics had gotten along since he had fought his way out of the womb. He could add and subtract before his first birthday, figured out multiplication before he turned two, and implicitly derived long division before he learned how to read. He may never have bothered learning his letters if it wasn't for the fact that, once he entered the first grade, he realized that the big stuff was crowded amongst letters in books. After his parents had failed for six years he taught himself in one week by treating words like equations for sounds.

When he was in the fourth grade, his teacher would ask who knew what four times four was, and he would respond by asking if a cosine wave could be represented with an infinite polynomial since it was just a regular function with infinite intercepts. His third grade teacher would have sent him to the office for pulling that sort of thing (back then, he was still wondering about the relationship between derivatives and integrals), but his fourth grade teacher just sent him into the hall. Mitsuki, who was zetta cute even back then, would wink at him – and that's when he began to realize that it was making him popular with the ladies.

In the seventh grade he bought (well, stole, but they're pretty much the same thing) a textbook on linear algebra and opened his eyes to n-dimensional space. Everything seemed to get fuzzy; for the first time in his life, he struggled to understand a concept. The image of a six, seven, twenty-dimensional space haunted him…for two or three days, after which he realized that the human brain is too zetta slow for some patterns.

When he was sixteen he had been rederiving Euler's Formula by way of differentiation rather than Taylor Series when a truck driver, drunk on love, high on life, hadn't stopped when he was crossing the road.

He woke up flat on his back in the Scramble. The ability to organize complex functions must have been considered integral to the Game, so they took the next most important thing to him -- his voice. For seven days he and some random radian of a Partner had fought their way to the moon and back, and at the very end when they asked him if he would kill his Partner to become a Reaper, she was dead before he bothered to nod.

Being dead was zetta awesome. As he descended into half-madness, scribbling formulae on walls and roads and Players' corpses, all he could think about was how much time he had to play with patterns.


	13. Different

**Title**: Different  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku  
Warning(s): None  
Genre: Gen

Everything looked different after the Game -- which made perfect sense, of course, since that's what the Game is supposed to do. But sill, everything looked different, and not always in the best sort of way. There wasn't a single day that would go by without a moment of melancholy for what he had done and what he had left behind.

His mother would be cooking, for example, and he'd be hanging around in the kitchen, helping out where he was needed. She'd lift up the lid of the pot to check on the pasta or whatever and say something to the tune of "Well, now we're boiling," and Neku would have to leave the room.

Or in math class the teacher would be walking them through some sort of linear transformation and they would have to change the basis. He'd turn his back to them and draw the little minus one on the chalkboard and say "So then we take the inverse matrix," and Neku would ask to go to the washroom.

Or he'd be wandering through the streets with Shiki, looking for a new shirt or a bite to eat, and the store they would wander into would have a little decal, almost unnoticeable, spray painted on the door. Inside there would sometimes be a pair of them, bruised and breathing heavily, holding hands -- because otherwise…you never know what could happen. Neku would ask for a moment alone, but Shiki would come and cry with him every time.

Or he'd be awake once again at the witching hour in the morning, too frightened to sleep, the muted noise of nighttime Shibuya almost terrifying. He'd draw the sheets close to his body, try to spin a little Imagination into a peaceful dream, and when all else failed he'd reach out just a little farther and wait until the silver-white cloud would drift in and wipe his eyes.

Everything looked different after the Game.


	14. It's Starting

**Title**: It's Starting  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Shiki  
Warning(s): None  
Genre: Gen

"Hold still," Shiki says, pushing another pin into the dress. "I'll poke you by accident if you don't stop fidgeting."

Neku grumbled but complied. Shiki reaches into a nearby box and drew out a spool of dark green thread, carefully threading the needle she had been holding in her mouth before drawing it to a seam. "Tell me again why I'm wearing a dress."

"Because my model bailed, so I'm going to walk it at the Junior Design Competition myself, but I can't fit it while it's on me, can I? Not that I'm blaming you for being so skinny. Turn around."

He did, and she tugged the zipper down, helping him out of it. He rubbed his shoulders before grabbing his shorts. The dress was beautiful, all green and gold, but he couldn't help feeling a little sad for some reason. "You're really...serious about this, huh?"

"Serious about-" she arranged the dress on the stand, patting down an imaginary wrinkle. "-Yeah, I guess. After...you know - it made me think about what I wanted to do with my life, and how I was going to...make it up to you."

"Make it up to me?"

"You saved me, Neku. You saved me and Shibuya. I'm not going to let your sacrifice go to waste."

"Or your talent," he said, feeling undeserving of her praise.

Shiki came in second place, her lily-of-the-valley dress losing by half a point to a jumble of plaid-on-argyle. It wasn't Neku's taste but that sort of chaos seemed to be the thing in Shibuya, and she seemed happy (rightfully) to have done so well. The real prize came a week later when, breathless with excitement, she told him that the chief creative officer of D+B called her, wanting to know if she was interested in an internship.

"It's starting," she said, as he sat on her bed and she rummaged through her closet for the perfect thing to wear to the interview. "It's starting, Neku. I'm moving on with my life."

"Hell yeah, you are," Neku said. A spot of cold shaped like a hand on his arm reminded him that he would never move on with his.


	15. All Of Me

**Title**: All Of Me  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku  
Warning(s): Spoilers.  
Genre: Gen

It's not the first time Neku's killed someone, and it certainly won't be the last time. Periodically, a pair would make it to the seventh day but would not complete the final mission; after the Partners who challenged the Game Master were either memories or living bodies (which didn't happen too often), he'd take to the streets to clean up any stragglers to lay the foundations for a fresh new Game. Plus, of course, those winners who were deemed too weak to breathe again or join his ranks.

It's not the first time Neku's killed someone, but it's the first time he's killed someone he knows.

(It's a harsh reminder of how long it's been since he grudgingly accepted the job of Conductor – Shigeru was four grades below him, and yet now he was eighteen years old. That would make Neku, in living years, twenty-two.)

To be a Conductor is to be a living memory among other things, and a side-effect was the sharpening of those old stories in his brain; he knew Shigeru the moment he saw him. Shi had been an obnoxious smart-ass who loved baseball and old-school American baseball cards. His mom knew Neku's mom through...something, so from time to time they'd end up having to take care of one another on a Saturday afternoon. Neku wanted to listen to music and Shi wanted to lob baseballs around, but he could punch harder. Needless to say, Neku's memories of Shigeru were not the best.

For some reason, though, when he sees Shigeru Minikawa dying in the Scramble all those old animosities melt away. All he can see is an old friend, an old memory, a part of the old Neku Sakuraba disappearing before his very eyes, and the only thing he can think to do is to finish the job before Shi suffers any longer. He raises his hand, closes his eyes, and sends a killing bolt through the fading body.

It's not the first time Neku's killed someone, but it's the first time he's killed a part of himself.


	16. Cheap

**Title**: Cheap  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Shiki  
Warning(s): None  
Genre: Gen

Shiki was giggling like a third-grader as she rifled through the racks in the D+B 104, pulling out items at random before disappearing into the change room with her arms full of clothing.

"I'll be a while," she yelled through the door, "You go check out Wild Boar or something. Be back in like twenty minutes, 'kay?"

Neku did _not_ want to check out Wild Boar or something, especially when the things Shiki was trying on cost ten thousand yen each and they needed to save money for food. He wandered out of the store to the chagrin of the cashier and eventually found his way into Mus Rattus.

People at school called it the 'elementary school brand', which Neku didn't quite understand – yeah, it was inexpensive, but it's not like there was any difference between a seven million yen shirt from Pegaso and a seven hundred yen shirt from Mus Rattus as long as it covered some skin. And if it meant they could have dinner that night, he was all for it.

But as he went through bargain bin after bargain bin he started, for the first time in his life, to feel discontent with the label. There was no variety, the material was poor, the design had no love or thought in it —

_Good lord,_ he thought. _It's been four days and I've already been Shikified._

He ended up buying, rather than an entire wardrobe, just some socks, because no other label carried socks. He returned to the D+B with those and a handful of pins he found along the way, certain that they'd find some use for them soon enough. Shiki was still changing.

"Find anything good?"

_I found an epiphany, thanks to you._ "Couple of pins. And some socks from MR, just in case we needed them."

"Some socks?" She stepped out of the change room, the pile in her arms significantly smaller. "I'm surprised you didn't buy out their stock and tell me it's so that we have money for food."

"Almost," Neku said, as they walked towards the cash register. "Almost."


	17. Dissonance

**Title**: Dissonance  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku  
Warning(s): Spoilers  
Genre: Gen

Sometimes, for old time's sake, he shakes himself loose from his past and present and wanders alone through Shibuya.

The streets comfort him. The wide, then narrow accidental harmony between one avenue and the next are sort of beautiful now that he has a chance to see them – neither shut away with his eyes on the ground nor constantly on the run to save the lives precious to him, he can soak in what he has missed.

And soak he does, a sponge, gathering in the clothing and the chatter, the dissonant thoughts, the chaos at Shibuya's heart that almost destroyed it. It takes two weeks from the day it ended for him to safely walk through a crowd without bumping into others, and a week after that before he can answer his phone without his stomach dropping – the three week winter has changed every inch of his life.

But this wandering is changing now, and more and more he wanders not alone but with his friends beside him. They search for nothing in particular, turning over stones and poking their heads into shops, but always seem to end up at CAT street and turn into WildKAT for coffee and stories.

Neku's happy, really, really happy for the first time in his life. He has never liked coffee or stories or wandering or friends and it took an experience like that to change his mind and experiences like this to keep it that way. The way Shiki laughs and the corners of Rhyme's mouth turn up and Beat holds his stomach and Mr. H grins and offers him a free refill – he could live like that forever. But he knows he can't.

The future before him is a giant question mark. He's aimed himself towards graphic design but sometimes, especially when he wanders alone, he sees a Player or feels a spot of coldness or gets tagged by stray Noise. This dream will only last for so long. Someone is calling for him.


	18. Frame

**Title**: Frame  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Neku, Hanekoma  
Warning(s): Spoilers  
Genre: Gen

Eventually, at Mr. H's insistence, he brought in one of his works. It was his favourite – and, ironically, it was the piece of art that he felt looked the least like anything CAT had ever put out.

"It's not irony, it's originality, Neku," Mr. H said with his intimidating sort of ease. He held the sketch at arm's length, then close-up, then turned it upside down, then took a sip of coffee. "…I like it. It's not anything I could have done."

Neku felt his face heat up. "It's – nothing. Ugly. Give it back." He moved to take it away. But Mr. H, being Mr. H, dodged his arm and gave him a smirk.

"Y'know, it's a problem everywhere, people feeling embarrassed by their talent. This is good stuff, Neku. Don't feel like you need to hide anything." He pushed aside a couple of papers on the café's counter and motioned for Neku to take the bar stool next to him. When he did, Mr. H pointed to the bottom-left corner of the design. "I like this part the best. What's the medium?"

"I, uh," Neku's face was bright red. "—Crushed leaves, mixed them with white glue and water. Wanted a pale green but the store was out."

"Interesting texture. The blend of artificial and natural isn't something CAT's ventured into…I've done dissonance, but you mix harmony in there too, kid. You make me proud."

It was the highest praise Neku had ever gotten, and he glowed through his discomfort. Mr. H rummaged around in a nearby pile of junk, brought out a picture frame, and snapped it open.

"D'you mind? I'd like to keep it around."

"N- no, go ahead."

He didn't frame it until Neku had signed it, and put the design up in the storefront . They stepped back to admire the tiny piece among CAT's best works. For some reason, Neku felt like it might be a first step – but he didn't know where. All he knew was that this was the beginning of something big.


	19. Desperate Measures

**Title**: Desperate Measures  
**Fandom**: The World Ends With You  
_Pairing/Characters_: Minamimoto, Hanekoma  
Warning(s): Spoilers  
Genre: Gen

"Nice digs," Minamimoto said, strolling into WildKAT like he owned the place. "Zetta nice. You do anything with it other than admire the wallpaper?"

Hanekoma grinned. "I sell coffee and pastries – you know, little things to chew on…and I keep my artwork here. It's a coffee shop-workplace hybrid, yeah?"

"You merchandise little bytes, huh? You're one zetta weird dude." He found a bar stool and draped himself over it, spinning himself to face Hanekoma. His eyes betrayed their dark purpose – and there was no joking about that.

"Right." He grabbed a nearby dish towel and wiped his hands clean of any imaginary dirt. "It's in the back. Follow me."

Minamimoto was uncharacteristically silent as they stepped into the studio, his golden eyes flittering around to take in the heart of Shibuya. Every so often he gave a small sound of approval or disapproval directed towards a certain work of art, but otherwise said nothing until they came to a large cloth-covered canvas at the back of the room.

Hanekoma unveiled it with neither the pomp nor the circumstance he normally found so easily. Instead, he found his heart cloudeed with a hint of uncertainty, but knew that desperate times were calling for Shibuya.

"Taboo Noise refinery," he said, cursing the way his voice went up slightly. He wondered if Minamimoto noticed those things. "Not the best, but it'll likely work. If you –"

But Sho wasn't listening, concentrating instead on the painting. It wasn't Hanekoma's finest work, and the paint had smudged a little – spray paint was meant for asphalt, not canvas – but the intent was there, and the glint in Sho's eyes was telling.

"Gonna take down the Composer," he said, more to himself than anyone. Then he laughed. "This zetta _owns_! The Composer's gonna have his _brains_ derived out with this!"

Hanekoma gritted his teeth and forced himself to remember what it meant for something to be a desperate measure.


End file.
